From baseball to Bosnia–From Tiger, with love
If you watch ESPN like I do, one thing has become abundantly clear in the past few days: Tiger Woods has a new best friend, and his name is Mark McGwire. In a classic Monica Lewinsky vs. Bosnian airstrikes scenario, the McGwire steroid admission has swooped in and totally trumped the Tiger Woods scandal.
While I’ll tell you for certain that I couldn’t be happier to be rid of daily reminders of Tiger Woods’ “transgressions,” I fear we’ve just stopped beating one dead horse, and started kicking another.
When Tiger’s mistress count topped a baker’s dozen, I’d had enough. I love a fall from grace as much as the next guy, but my God, the Perkins waitress? If only she would have worked at Denny’s. Then at least I could have made a ‘grand slam breakfast’ comment here. Unfortunately no good puns on the Perkins menu. I checked.
Then, just as suddenly as Tiger’s Escalade became intimately involved with a tree, McGwire hits us with a jaw-dropper that reduces the Tiger affairs to mere footnotes. It was the sort of jaw-dropper that everyone knew already, and we all act like it’s a surprise together.
The carefully orchestrated gang beating of Mark McGwire began with a statement released to the Associated Press on Monday. Then, surprise, a prime time interview with Bob Costas on MLB network just hours later. Followed up Tuesday with an ESPN interview with Outside the Lines host, Bob Ley.
All along, the whole thing gave the impression that this was a politically constructed PR campaign. Then came the news that the entire sequence was composed by Ari Fleischer’s PR firm. For those of you who might not remember, Fleischer served as White House Press Secretary under George W. Bush. What you might not have known is that he now heads Ari Fleischer Sports Communications, a NY-based PR firm that focuses on athletes who have fallen into the bad graces of the press. According to the firm’s website, “Ari Fleischer Sports Communications can help you handle the bad news, and take advantage of the good.”
It was a natural progression for a press secretary who fended off reporters for an unpopular president who happened to run a MLB franchise before entering politics.
In all, I think McGwire has done a pretty good job handling the public lashing. The media have not always been fair about the story. Maybe not a huge surprise there either.
The day the story broke, Brian Williams began the broadcast of NBC World News saying that because it was a family program he could not say the things he felt about the story. Take that, objectivity.
I don’t think we ought to be praising McGwire for admitting his mistakes. After all, it was the mistakes that got him here. But at the same time, at least he’s manning up to them, which is far more than a lot of his colleagues have done to this point. Beyond that he wasn’t outed. He outed himself. He didn’t fail a drug test. He released a statement saying he took drugs.
Since his admission, there has been a lot of talk about McGwire’s testimony before Congress five years ago. I think a lot of what we’re hearing about this is unfair. McGwire didn’t lie to Congress; he danced around the issue like a court jester. Anyone who thought that McGwire didn’t know what he was setting himself up for there is kidding themselves. He made it a point not to lie before Congress. He basically laid himself on the altar to do so.
New details that are just now coming to light about the hearings offer some insight into why McGwire acted the way he did in Washington. Congressman Tom Davis was the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee which conducted the 2005 inquiry into the use of performance enhancing drugs in MLB. In interviews after the admission, Davis has said that McGwire wanted to tell the truth on the stand. McGwire and his attorneys actually did admit his use to Congress in hours of meetings the day before the public hearing. The meetings were held to request immunity in the next day’s testimony. Then Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, refused the requests.
On the stand that day in 2005 McGuire was between a rock and a hard place. He could admit what he’d done, and face prosecution. Or he could lie about what he’d done and face prosecution for perjury. Or he could take the only way out afforded to him under the law, and dance around the questions. McGwire danced, and there isn’t an attorney in the country who wouldn’t have advised him to.
So now we have a new whipping boy, and a new headache eating up highlight minutes on ESPN. Why is it that I feel like I’m watching TMZ every time I turn on ESPN? I guess it’s for the same reasons that Ari Fleischer has a lucrative career. For now Tiger Woods is in the clear, thanks to his new buddy Mark. One man’s troubles are another man’s long-awaited relief.
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